Standard Oil refinery fire of 1955

Aug 19, 2015 | 2:33 PM

On Aug. 27, 1955, an explosion at the Standard Oil refinery in Whiting, Ind., destroyed much of the plant and dozens of homes. The explosion occurred in a “hydroformer,” a 26-story-high tank used to convert low-octane gasoline into high-octane gasoline at what is now a BP refinery. The largest hydrorfomer in the country, it sat on the fourth largest refinery in the nation, surrounded by myriad storage tanks, some with a million-gallon capacity. Their contents were supposed to pass through the plant’s 20 miles of pipelines and onto the gas tanks of the nation’s cars and trucks. Instead, they fueled 18 acres of fires for eight days.